Your Liquor Dollars at Work

PA State Liquor StoresThe Post Gazette highlights the continued efforts of the liquor control board to be a better business.

This includes the ridiculous:

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is asking the state’s universities to provide “statistical analysis and economic research to help redefine the PLCB’s current sales model.” The board sent out the bid invitations in late June, and proposals are due July 28

the more ridiculous:

PLCB board Chairman Patrick J. Stapleton III said the university query is driven by “more of an outreach” to the schools, than by any actual shortcomings in the system’s own data analysis.

the absurd:

In 2007, it entered a contract with E.&J. Gallo Winery and Future Brands LLC to study consumer preferences. The following year, it launched a campaign to remake the PLCB image with an “enduring, iconic brand identity.” San Francisco-based Landor Associates eventually won a $3.7 million contract to run that campaign. Later, the PLCB signed a $174,000 contract with a Pittsburgh company to train employees to better interact with customers.

and the inane:

Also, the PLCB recently rolled out a new consumer website. The site, created by Landor and some in-house designers, is finewineandgoodspirits.com. (The old site, pawineandspirits.com, now redirects visitors to the new one.)

I guess if you have “fine” and “good” in the URL, it will sell better. FYI, we are changing ours to AwesomeCommonwealthFoundation.org.

Some academics have already weighed in on state-run liquor stores: Privatize Them! Government trying to research what the private sector does and then imitate it is not a substitute for competition.